100 FIG. 13 (below): Mask. Vuvi, Gabon. H: 13.5 cm. Ex Marcel Gromaire. Photo © Sylvia Bataille. Reproduced with the kind permission of Galerie Renaud Vanuxem, Paris. A similar maskette is in the collection of the Musée d’Ethnographie de Neuchâtel, inv. 92.10.38. FIG. 14: Mask. Vuvi, Gabon. Wood. H: 32 cm. Ex Hans Himmelheber, 1938; Weyhe Gallery, New York, 1940; Erle Loran, San Francisco, 1955. W. & U. Horstmann Collection. Photo © U. Horstmann. Published: Thompson and Vogel, 1990, p. 98, fig. 16; Bassani et al., 2002, pp. 122–123. FIG. 15: Mask. Vuvi, Gabon. H: 33.5 cm. Ex Merton Simpson, New York; Victor J. Schenk, Baltimore. Private collection. Reproduced with the kind permission of Claes Gallery, Brussels. FIG. 16: Mask. Vuvi, Gabon. Wood, vegetal fiber, pigment. H: 32 cm. Musée Dapper, inv. 4291. © Archives Musée Dapper. Photo: Mario Carrieri. Published: Perrois, 1997, p. 127; Neyt, 1995, p. 151; Falgayrettes- Leveau, 2006, p. 34. FIG. 17: Mask. Vuvi, Gabon. Wood, kaolin. H: 32 cm. Ex Halley Collection, 1932. Collection of the Musée des Confluences, Lyon, inv. 60004126. © Patrick Ageneau, Musée des Confluences/Département du Rhône. Published: Arts premiers d’Afrique noire: plastique et langage, 1982. FEATURE bwete. They experience a symbolic death which evokes the original sacrifice of Dinzona, the first wife of Kombe, and the rival of his second wife, Ngonde, the moon. The radiantly beautiful Dinzona had been chased from the village of the ancestors and condemned to descend to earth. She came into the motombi (the red-barked copal tree), the Tsogo tree of life with two roots, the left belonging to Dinzona and the right to Kombe (Gollnhofer and Sillans, 1979: 169). She was reincarnated in the eight-stringed ngombi, or harp colored with red padauk wood (see Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. 1981.123), which occupies a central place in the bwete cult. Women, who cannot be initiated to the bwete disumba, are invited to the public event at night in the village plaza. The public bwete events were spectacular. The masks would emerge from the obscurity of darkness to the blowing of horns, beating of drums, and the light cast by torch bearers. Among the Tsogo, as among the Vuvi, the maskers appeared in anthropomorphic disguises, covered with animal hides, foliage, and fabric. They symbolized the “glorious deceased,” the ancestors who had been initiated into the bwete and who now live in Kombe’s village. The Cosmic Voyage Some masks represent mythical or legendary entities. For example, the white mask represents Ngonde, the moon. The subject of the white mask is that of the “dead young girl,” with the ashen and ghostly facial aspect of a spirit or returning ancestor, whose cold beauty is sometimes associated with that of the moon (Sallée, 1975: 88). Among the Tsogo, as among the Vuvi, during the bwete disumba, the white mask is always accompanied by a red one symbolizing Kombe, the sun (Gollnhofer, 1974: 158). Kombe is the male principle and guardian of the “village of the dead” where Ngonde, the female principle, and the stars, Minanga (children of Kombe and Ngonde), reside. Ngadi (thunder) is a fourth entity. This cosmic triad of ancient origin is found in the entire Ogooue-Congo cultural area. In his description of the Congo at the end of the sixteenth century, Filippo Pigafetta wrote, “They worship that which it pleases them to worship. Their main god is the sun, the male element, and the moon, the female element” (Gaulme, 1999: 289). In 1909, Monsignor A. Le Roy, citing Father H. Trilles, recounts that “at the beginning, the sun and the moon were married, and the stars were their children. They were nourished with fire, and that is why they shine. But once, the unfaithful moon abandoned the conjugal home. When the sun became aware of this, he became so violently enraged that the stars fled to all corners of the sky. … And ever since, the sun runs tirelessly and desperately after his family. But as soon as they see him coming on the horizon, the latter find hiding places in the heavens above. … As soon as he has disappeared again, the moon shows herself, here again, and there again” (Le Roy, 1909: 76). The epic of Bitola is “one of the highlights of the Pove oral tradition … and a solar myth as well.” It tells the story of the small family of Nzambe, his wife Bwanga, and their son Bitola. “The celestial family model formed around the sun, the moon, and the stars. It is appropriate to mention that in the distant past, the sun was also called Nzembo, a name phonetically similar to Nzambe.” The son, Bitola, obtains his nourishment exclusively from fire and “from burning embers. As such, he evokes fire, a consubstantial element of the sun, to whom he is son” (N’zenguet-Lola, 2005: 12–13). Among the Tsogo, Nzambe is the “reference common to all of these tales. Nzambe is the civilizing hero, Nzambe in his duality, the first ancestor and reflection of divinity” (Sallée, 1975: 110). The Mweli, “Prince of the Earth” In order to be initiated into the bwete disumba among the Vuvi, it was mandatory to first have been initiated to the mweli (mouiri) and the bodi, two other societies that serve as networks of social integration and cohesion. Apindji tradition holds that the mweli, the male secret society, was also invented by them, and that it was only later with the advent of the bwete that these two initiation societies spread among the other peoples of the Ngounie (Grand-Dufay, 2010: 54). The mweli acts as a regulator of human activities and of the management of village and forest ecosystems. It has a number of features (social function, rites of passage, myths) in common with other initiation societies such as the mongala (Kota group/Kele), the yasi (Galwa), the ngil (Fang), and the ndjobi (Upper Ogooue) (Bonhomme, 2005: 161). Initiation is mandatory after the circumcision of the boys, during which certain masks are used. During a period of seclusion and bullying lasting two to three months, each boy learns elements of basic human knowledge, his role as the head of the family, and the techniques used for the judicious exploitation of the forest. Scarification consisting of three parallel lines is incised onto the wrist. This symbol also adorns the cheeks and foreheads of certain Vuvi masks. These marks denote the initiate’s acceptance into the mweli. “It is the Pove mask which teaches how to preserve the secrets of the origins of life, and about the significance of
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